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Kate Froese | Episode 743

Kate Froese creates functional ceramics that focus on comfort, quality, and finish out of her home studio in Manitoba. Kate has  a passion for nature and the outdoors, especially Rural and Northern Canada. That love shows up in Kate’s clay work. Kate enjoys living a relaxed and creative life.

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Do you have non-negotiables in terms of what you will and won’t make?

Like,  I won’t agree to make something that is beyond my skill level. I am not going to make Martha Grover’s tulips. I have to be real with myself about my skills. I like making mugs, bowls, functional dinnerware…pieces that bring people together around a table.

Do you feel like one off projects can be a little bit like energy vampires?

When you are in the studio and you are making things that you want to make, I feel like I just have a better flow to my work and the work that I produce is better. But when I have a list that I have to make, a mug this size for this person, … it stresses me out and I don’t want to do it. I end up putting it off and I I don’t want people to have to wait longer and longer so I have said no to a lot of projects lately.

Why is it a small order is a stressor and a large order of twenty to fifty mugs is not a stressor?

So the fifty mug order that I took is actually almost one hundred, they have ordered a mug that I already make. Whereas sometimes you will get requests.. I want this mug with my pet’s paw-prints on it or things like that.  Because it is something that I am not normally doing it takes me that much longer to kind of figure out how to make it look the way that I want it to look, which is beautiful. And when it doesn’t turn out that way, I am frustrated and I don’t feel good about charging someone for this piece  that I don’t feel is that beautiful or that successful as  a piece, but it still took me an hour or more to make that piece so I don’t want this piece attached to my name. Obligated pieces are definitely an energy suck.

How do you balance not wanting to disappoint people and to saying no?

I think if you are true to yourself  and your work you can have pieces that will resonate with and attract your true fans, the people that will love what you make regardless of what they want you to be making. I once made mugs with our province on them and people have mentioned if I make them again they would be interested and it’s good to know there would be a market for them.

Does that mean you are very attentive to what people respond to?

Definitely my local market. I love not shipping pieces. Shipping pottery is so challenging in and of itself  and I don’t want to buy a bunch of plastic resources to ship pottery, so when people can come and pick it up from my house, I think that is amazing. It is amazing to have the support of people who come back again and again to buy.

What is your favorite way to reward yourself after having made a good set of sales?

We have a list of goals, my husband and I… that we want to spend our money on so we are pretty conscious of where those dollars go. So mortgage is the number one thing we spend our money on and I know that is not a luxury at all but that is just what is on our plan and down the road we have things that we really want because we have made the sacrifices now. I keep telling myself I am going to get my canoe eventually.

Book

Simon Leach’s Pottery Handbook 

Contact

Etsy: KateFroesePottery

Instagram: @katefroesepottery